Performance and Account Health

This page explains the performance metrics Seller Center reports, where each metric is found, the standards the metrics are measured against, and how performance connects to enforcement. This page summarizes the Performance and Account Health Policy, which governs.

What performance measures

Performance → Overview (/seller/performance/overview) reports your account health and the metrics below, each with its own detail page. The overview also shows your account standing, including whether any violation is active on your account.

• Account health: your overall standing: the summary of everything below.
• Return rate (/seller/performance/return-rate): the share of your orders returned by buyers. A high return rate points to a product problem: description accuracy, sizing, quality, or packaging.
• Item-not-received rate (/seller/performance/inr-rate): item-not-received claims against shipped orders. In practice this is a shipping and tracking metric: valid, carrier-scanned tracking is the defense.
• Negative feedback (/seller/performance/negative-feedback): 1–2 star ratings in the last 90 days.
• Late shipment rate (/seller/performance/late-shipment): orders shipped after the promised date. This is the metric most directly under your control, and the one that feeds the others.

Carrier (/seller/performance/carrier) and regional (/seller/performance/regional) views let you divide the same data by carrier and by region.

The standards

The Service Level Requirements set the numeric bars the metrics are measured against, including late shipment rate, valid tracking rate, order defect rate, cancellation rate, and response time. Those figures are stated in that document; know the numbers that apply to you. They are thresholds, not aspirations: sustained performance beyond a threshold leads to the measures described in the Seller Enforcement Policy.

The highest-leverage practice for your performance is also the simplest: ship on time, with valid tracking, for a product described accurately. A large share of performance problems reduces to those three.

Reading your metrics like an operator

Read your metrics regularly, comparatively, and with attention to what changed

• Late shipment climbing: decide whether it is a handling time problem (your operations) or a carrier problem (your carrier choice). The fixes are different.
• Return rate climbing on one product: a product problem. Read the return reasons in Returns → Insights (see Returns, Refunds and Disputes) and fix the listing or the product.
• Item-not-received rate climbing: a tracking problem. Confirm that every shipment carries carrier-scanned tracking, as the Tracking Policy requires.
• Negative feedback clustering: read the feedback itself. It usually names something specific: slow shipping, product not as described, poor packaging, or unanswered messages.

The enforcement connection

Performance is not advisory. Under the Seller Enforcement Policy, enforcement proceeds in ordinary steps: investigation, notice, an opportunity to cure where the violation can be cured, then measures proportionate to the violation, which may include listing suppression or restriction, a payout hold, suspension, or termination. Severe violations, such as counterfeit goods, fraud, or a safety risk, may proceed directly to a serious measure. You are told where you stand at each step, and a measure may be appealed under the Appeals Policy (see Policies, Violations and Appeals). "I did not know the standard" is not a ground available to you: the standards are published, and you accepted them at onboarding.

If something goes wrong

• Account standing shows good standing but a listing is suppressed: suppression is a listing-level measure and standing is account-level. Check /seller/catalog/suppression for the listing and /seller/governance/violations for the account.
• A metric spikes: find the cause before the cause reaches you as a notice. A spike has a reason, and a reason usually has a fix.
• A metric looks wrong: compare it against your orders, tracking records, and return records for the same period, and raise a specific discrepancy: period, orders, and records: with support.

Performance terms are also stated in the Selling Terms of Service.